News

Three students from the Graduate School of Social Work at Portland State University have been honored with awards and scholarships, which will help further their education and their community service efforts.

Berhanu Joffe Deboch, a second year student in the Graduate School of Social Work, is one of only three recipients nationally of the "2004 Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Award" presented by the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). The award is granted to emerging leaders with disabilities who are actively working for the betterment of the disabled community. Deboch, who is blind, will receive a cash award of $10,000 enabling him to complete his master's degree in Social Work, continue participating in national disability conferences and conduct international research. Deboch is from Ethiopia and has served as the public and recruitment officer for the Ethiopian National Organization of the Blind and has also worked in refugee camps in South Africa, Kenya and Mozambique.

Travis Benoist and Steve Shane, first year students in the Graduate School of Social Work's Distance Education Option, have been awarded the "Building on Strengths" scholarship. The scholarship is funded by the Federal Children's Bureau, and is offered to tribally affiliated social work students who are committed to working with Native children and families after graduation. Benoist, from Salem, Ore., and Shane, from Silverton, Ore., entered the Social Work program with established track records of social service and are affiliated with the Cheyenne River Sioux and Clatsop-Nehalem tribes, respectively. PSU is part of a consortium of graduate schools of Social Work in the Pacific Northwest committed to enriching social work education for Native peoples.

The Graduate School of Social Work offers the only accredited graduate program of Social Work in the state and currently has 24 faculty members, 440 graduate students, including 40 doctoral students, and $7.3 million annually in externally funded projects. This year 60 students from southern and central Oregon joined the School's Distance Graduate Education Option, a three-year program that enables the students to study in their home communities during their second and third years of the program. For more information about the School, visit www.ssw.pdx.edu.